Champ the lake monster

For generations, Vermonters and New Yorkers, believers and skeptics, adults and children have searched for answers to tell us the truth about Champ, America’s very own Loch Ness monster, believed to make its home in the beautiful Lake Champlain. The beast has been featured on Unsolved Mysteries, the Today Show, the Discovery Channel, and even drawn interest from Japanese television.

Champ falls into a category of creatures known as cryptozoological animals. This category includes unicorns, Bigfoot, dragons—and we can’t forget Champ’s relative—the Loch Ness Monster. The main thing this band of creatures has in common is the fact that while none have yet been satisfactorily proven to exist, not one of them has ever been conclusively proven to not exist.

Over the years, there have been over 300 reported unexplained sightings of the monster known as Champ. Eyewitnesses have given descriptions of creatures ranging from 10 to 200 feet long, some claiming with a head like a dog, others claiming more serpent-like. Although the first sighting is often attributed to the lake’s namesake, Samuel de Champlain, historians have discovered after reading his journals that the creature he described was actually sighted near the St. Lawrence river, and not in Lake Champlain.

On July 22, 1819, a man known as Captain Crum reported seeing an unknown creature in Bulwagga Bay, the home to a number of reported sightings. He described the creature as a black monster, nearly 187 feet long, with a head resembling a sea horse. According to the captain, the creature reared more than 15 feet out of the water. In his account, the creature had “three teeth, eyes the color of a peeled onion, a white star on its forehead, and a belt of red around the neck”.

That same year, farmers near Bulwagga Bay reportedly had livestock go missing, with drag marks leading down to the banks of the lake.

The bay — located off Port Henry, NY — is often considered to be the home base of Champ, due to the multitude of sightings over the years. There is even a large sign standing at the bay that lists all the sightings of Champ over the years.

1873 was a busy year for Champ sightings. That year, in a New York Times report, a railroad crew reportedly saw the head of an “enormous serpent” with bright silvery scales that glistened in the sun. In July of ‘73, Nathan H. Mooney, the Clinton County Sheriff, claimed to see an “enormous snake or water serpent” that he estimated to be 25 to 30 feet long. In August, tourists aboard the steamship W.B. Eddy alleged that their watercraft nearly flipped over when they collided with the lake monster.

Never one to miss an opportunity, P.T. Barnum —founder of Barnum and Bailey Circus, and perpetuator of hoaxes — offered rewards for the beast, dead or alive. In both 1873 and 1887, he offered a $50,000 reward for the “hide of the great Champlain serpent to add to my mammoth World’s Fair Show!”

In 1977, Sandra Mansi took what is still considered the most famous photograph of a Champ sighting, and one of the most credible pieces of evidence that points to the monster’s existence.

In 1984, off Appletree Point in Vermont, a group of 86 passengers aboard the cruise ship Ethan Allen spotted 3 to 5 “humps” sticking out of the water. After around three minutes, they disappeared back under the surface due to an approaching speed boat. Although claims say Champ is a friendly beast, the creature is said to prefer the peace and quiet, and will often retreat at the sounds of watercraft.

In 1993, at Button Bay State Park in Ferrisburgh, Vermont, two women swimming in the lake claim a small “baby” champ swam between them.

In the summer of 2005, near the Ausable River, two fishermen, Pete Bodette and Dick Affolter, captured what they believe to be Champ on video while out on the lake in their boat. In the video, you can glimpse a large “something” under the water, which creates an odd looking wake on the surface. Affolter said “It made my hair stand on end at the time. It just didn’t fit anything — any creature I had ever seen.”

The video was studied by two retired FBI agents who concluded that the footage had not been altered in any way, so while it may not be clear what the “something” was that the two fisherman saw, the footage itself is all authentic.

The lake sturgeon, a species of fish known to currently be living in Lake Champlain, might be the true identity of our lake monster.

So what is Champ?

There are several scientific theories about what species Champ may be. The first is that the serpentine creature is in fact a dinosaur that somehow escaped extinction millions of years ago, and has managed to survive until present day in the lake.

The next theory is that the single monster is actually a whole population of zeuglodons living in the lake. A zeuglodon, originally known as a basilosaurus is a primitive form of a whale, which has a long snake-like body. Basilosaurus even translates to “King of Serpents”. This species has been long believed to be extinct. However, fossils of zeuglodons have in fact been found near Lake Champlain in Charlotte, so they did at least at one time live in the area.

One widely believed theory is that Champ is a lake sturgeon lurking under the surface. There are in fact sturgeons that live in Lake Champlain. This particular fish can grow to great lengths. It is a very old, almost prehistoric animal, with a scale-less body, and a single long dorsal fin down the length of its back. This dorsal fin would match many descriptions of Champ, but the sturgeon’s sharp shark like tail would not. Since many of the sightings are of a creature that doesn't break the surface, this is quite a plausible theory.

Yet another theory regarding the monster’s true identity is that it is a plesiosaur. This is a prehistoric water dwelling reptile, not actually a dinosaur. A plesiosaur has a long snake-like head, and four flippers. Plesiosaurs are believed to have lived from the Triassic period — 200 million years ago— through the Cretaceous period — 65 million years ago, when dinosaurs are believed to have gone extinct.

In order to maintain a population of “Champs” in the lake, there would need to be around 50 adults, and 500 to keep the species going for a long time. While these numbers might not seem realistic, the lake itself does provide an ideal environment for a monster such as Champ. The lake is over 120 miles long, and over 400 feet deep in some places, creating optimal hiding places for a creature trying to escape detection. Lake Champlain is home to a wide variety of wildlife that could sustain the diet of the large serpent.

Although there are many who claim Champ is a floating tree, a trick of photoshop, or a figment of people’s imagination, both New York and Vermont legislatures have taken measures to officially protect the lake monster. In 1981, Port Henry, NY declared the lake a save haven for Champ, and in 1982, the state of Vermont passed a House Resolution protecting him.

Is Champ real?

So the question still remains. Is Champ a myth? Is the creature a figment of imagination? A hoax stretching over several centuries? Or is there really something mysterious lurking just out of reach, popping up when we least expect it. We may never know the truth...

The picture known as “The Mansi Photograph” is one of the most widely known photos of Champ the lake monster. It is widely regarded by some as authentic evidence of the monster, while some remain convinced it is either a hoax, or a misinterpreted log. Sandra Mansi’s story is as follows:

In July of 1977, Sandra Mansi and her fiance were driving along the coast of Lake Champlain somewhere between St. Albans and the Canadian border. They pulled over and made their way to a small bluff that overlooked the lake. Mansi’s two children went down to play in the water, while her fiance went back to the car to get their camera. As Mansi watched, she saw something in the water about 150 feet away. At first she thought maybe it was a school of fish, then perhaps a scuba diver, but then the head and neck broke through the surface of the water.

As she tried to figure out what she was seeing, her fiance came back from the car, and seeing the creature, shouted for the kids to get out of the water. He handed the Kodak Instamatic to Mansi, and she snapped the now famous snapshot of the beast. The pair estimated that the neck stuck about six feet out of the water, with the entire creature measuring about 12 to 15 feet long. According to Mansi, after she snapped the photo, she set her camera down and watched as the creature turned its head and neck slightly, and then slowly sank back down beneath the surface and disappeared. The whole sighting allegedly lasted between four to seven minutes, and the photograph depicts as much of the creature as Mansi herself ever saw.

One of the most remarkable things to note about the photo is that despite being studied and examined by many experts, no one has been able to conclude that any tampering has been done to the photo. It therefore remains the most credible piece of evidence to date of a beast living in the depths of Lake Champlain.

Several red flags have been pointed out by critics over the years, such as the four years that Mansi kept the photograph a secret before revealing it to the public, the fact that she only took one photo of such an amazing sight, her inability to provide any negatives of the photo. Many who have studied the photograph have speculated that it is a large piece of driftwood that protruded from the water, or have pointed out the similarities between this photo and the fraudulent 1934 photo of the Loch Ness Monster — nicknamed “The Surgeon’s Photo” — taken by respected British surgeon Colonel Robert Wilson.